WASHINGTON (Map, News) - Proof of the economic erosion of inner-ring Montgomery County suburbs is showing up in a more up-to-date indicator than the census: elementary schools.

New information provided to The Examiner last week reveals a dramatic increase in low-income and non-English-speaking students at five schools in Silver Spring, Germantown and Rockville — statistics that may expose more about the county than census data collected in 2005.

For example, while the most recent Silver Spring census data show the number of families living below the poverty line grew one-tenth of a percentage point between 2000 and 2006, school data show the number of students near the poverty line in the three Silver Spring elementary schools grew, on average, by more than 7 percent in the past year.

“Schools are usually a great indicator of what’s going on in a community,” said Cheryl Lynn Jenkins, who directs the county’s research on children, youth and families. “If you’re not sure what’s going on, look to the kids, especially if you don’t have a lot of updated census data.”

The five schools, according to a top-level official, are Glen Haven, Cresthaven and Jackson Road in Silver Spring, Clopper Mill in Germantown, and Brookhaven in Rockville. They join 23 others in the county in a category eligible for extra funding because at least 55 percent of the students come from families earning 185 percent or less of the federal poverty guideline. For a family of four, that means $38,203.

As low-income numbers have grown, so too have the number of students throughout the district who do not speak English as a first language. At the new schools, that population has soared. At Cresthaven, it grew from 10 percent to 16 percent in the past year. At Brookhaven, it’s jumped from 33 percent to 45 percent.

“If you look at the Montgomery County schools’ population, the minority population is much greater there, which is foretelling the future of Montgomery County,” Jenkins said.

lfabel@dcexaminer.com